An Aid Package in the Billions: Merkel's Bluff Called in Poker over Greece
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at an EU summit in Brussels on March 25. Photograph: Spiegel Online International
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: The European Union has hammered out a rescue plan for Greece. If Greece goes belly up, Germany will have to fork over 8 billion euros to the relief effort. The government doesn't want to hear about having "buckled." But there's no doubt that Angela Merkel's days as "Madame Non" are behind her.

Christopher Steegmans, spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel, decided that the best defense would be to go on the offensive. In a press conference held in Berlin on Monday, he declared that the state of the European Union's decision on whether to help Greece was "unchanged" -- lest anyone have a chance to claim the opposite beforehand. As he described it, discussions about the proposed €30 billion ($40.8 billion) rescue package for the crisis-plagued county were only about "hammering out technical details" but the time for talking about last resorts had yet to arrive. "The fact that the fire extinguisher is on the wall," he stated, "says absolutely nothing about the likelihood of its being used."

In other words: There's no reason to get excited. There's nothing to see here. Go on about your business, please.

But something about his hasty and unprompted justification elicited the feeling that something just wasn't right. Hadn't something happened? Hadn't Angela Merkel earned the moniker of "Madame Non" just a few weeks ago among EU heads of state and governments for being such a hard-nosed negotiator and blocking all moves to quickly provide the cash-strapped Greeks with some financial shots in the arm? And hasn't the conversation suddenly turned to very concrete sums running into the billions of euros that Berlin can use to give Athens a hand? 'Buckled?' >>> Philipp Wittrock | Monday, April 12, 2010

A 78 ans, elle épouse un homme de 49 ans
Photo : Gala.fr
GALA.fr: Amoureuse. Liz Taylor est amoureuse, et elle pourrait bientôt se faire passer la corde au cou par un homme de presque 30 ans son cadet, Jason Winters.

On les voyait fouler les tapis rouge ensemble depuis de nombreuses années, (comme sur notre photo, au gala Macy’s Passport, en septembre 2008), ils sont désormais fiancés. Elizabeth Taylor, 78 ans, et Jason Winters, 49 ans, semblent prêts pour l’autel. Ce serait le neuvième mariage de l’actrice. >>> | Lundi 12 Avril 2010

THE TELEGRAPH: Elizabeth Taylor denies ninth wedding rumours: Dame Elizabeth Taylor has denied that she is getting married for the ninth time. >>> | Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Russia's Bitter Harvest
LOS ANGELES TIMES: As the Moscow bombings remind, the simmering insurgency and brutal crackdown in the Caucasus have left a landscape of damaged women, some all too ready to spread their pain to Russia's heartland.

Mariyam Sharipova, one of the two women who carried out the attack in Moscow, is seen in a photo on the cellphone of her mother, Patimat Magomedova. (April 12, 2010) Photograph: Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Balakhani, Russia
The last time Patimat Magomedova saw her daughter, she was puttering around the house, manicuring her nails and using henna to dye her hair bright red.

It's high time we take care of the garden, the mother remembers Mariyam Sharipova saying that Friday. Let's plant raspberries, cucumbers, greens. And we have to do something about the kitchen, maybe get some pretty new dishes.

By evening, the young woman had vanished from the house in this remote mountain village in the Russian republic of Dagestan. Magomedova didn't see her daughter's face again until somebody showed her a photograph of a decapitated head. At that moment, she said, "I knew there was no mistake."

Sharipova, 27, had traveled a thousand miles to Moscow and climbed onto a crowded subway train at rush hour with an explosives-packed belt strapped around her waist. She was accompanied by a 17-year-old girl, also from Dagestan, who blew herself up at another station.

In the Russian news media, the women were immediately dubbed "black widows." Their assault on the subway was taken as proof that the country had been shuttled back to the fearsome days when hollow-eyed female militants stalked Moscow and other cities far from the wars where their men fought Russian forces.

The subway bombings also sent ripples of unease across the turbulent, mostly Muslim republics strung along Russia's southern edge. There was angst over the slaying of civilians and fear of retaliation.

But it came as slim surprise that women were ready to die. This, after all, is a landscape of damaged women, grieving losses they dare not dwell upon.

The closer you get to the fighting in the Caucasus, the murkier it appears. The violence in Dagestan, and in neighboring Chechnya and Ingushetia, is not easy to classify -- it's a mix of rebels who want independence from Russia, Islamist extremists bent on waging jihad, local clan and gang warfare and sectarian strife.

And as the fighting intensifies, it is the men who disappear. Masked agents pound on the door and cart them off for questioning. They come back beaten, or not at all. Sometimes the men are rebels; other times, their affiliations are bafflingly vague.

It's the women who are left behind, their status and material comforts tangled up in the choices of their fathers, sons and husbands.

Sharipova lived in a spacious, gated house with grape trellises and dizzying views up the mountainsides. Her mother teaches biology; her father is a self-described "patriot of the motherland" who teaches Russian literature.

She was a serious young woman who studied mathematics, psychology and computers. She was also a homebody who, in the words of her mother, "didn't mix well." When not working as the deputy principal of the village school, she busied herself with home improvement projects, cooked pilaf and fussed over clothes.

The fighting crept into the village. Security forces periodically staged "cleanup operations," swarming Balakhani with armored personnel carriers, helicopters and legions of ground troops, cutting off access to the mosque and searching house by house for signs of rebels. >>> Megan K. Stack | Monday, April 12, 2010

Le numéro deux du Vatican lie pédophilie et homosexualité
LE MONDE: Les scandales de pédophilie qui secouent l'Eglise catholique sont liés à l'homosexualité, pas au célibat des prêtres, a déclaré, lundi 12 avril, le secrétaire d'Etat du Vatican, le cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

"De nombreux psychologues et psychiatres ont démontré qu'il n'y avait aucun lien entre le célibat et la pédophilie et beaucoup d'autres, m'a-t-on dit récemment, qu'il y avait une relation entre l'homosexualité et la pédophilie", a dit le numéro deux du Vatican lors d'une conférence de presse à Santiago, au Chili, où il est en visite. "Cette pathologie touche toutes les catégories de gens, et les prêtres à un moindre degré si l'on regarde les pourcentages", a-t-il poursuivi. >>> LeMonde.fr avec AFP et Reuters | Lundi 12 Avril 2010

Holocaust Remembrance Honors Gay Victims
Photograph: Advocate.com
ADVOCATE.COM: On Sunday, which marked the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day, a program of events in Gainesville, Fla. honored gay victims of Nazi persecution. 



Coordinators at B'nai Israel Jewish Center honored gay Holocaust victims as a reminder of the sinister forces that underlie all hate, including recent crimes in the community, according to The Gainesville Sun. 



"Recent homophobic events in the city and the efforts to introduce bigotry and intolerance into the mayor's race showed us that this was a poignant time for us to introduce this topic," Holocaust Memorial Program committee member Phillip
Schwartz told the Sun. Read on and comment >>> Julie Bolcer | Monday, April 12, 2010

Holocaust Memorial Day 2010: "The Legacy of Hope"

Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day 2010
ISRAEL MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS: "Take heed... lest you forget the things your eyes have seen... and tell them to your children, and their children after them"
(Deut. 4:9)

Yad Vashem - The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority
Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah in Hebrew) is a national day of commemoration in Israel, on which the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust are memorialized. It is a solemn day, beginning at sunset on the 27th of the month of Nisan and ending the following evening, according to the traditional Jewish custom of marking a day. Places of entertainment are closed and memorial ceremonies are held throughout the country.

The central ceremonies, in the evening and the following morning, are held at Yad Vashem and are broadcast on the television. Marking the start of the day - in the presence of the President of the State of Israel and the Prime Minister, dignitaries, survivors, children of survivors and their families, gather together with the general public to take part in the memorial ceremony at Yad Vashem in which six torches, representing the six million murdered Jews, are lit.

The following morning, the ceremony at Yad Vashem begins with the sounding of a siren for two minutes throughout the entire country. For the duration of the sounding, work is halted, people walking in the streets stop, cars pull off to the side of the road and everybody stands at silent attention in reverence to the victims of the Holocaust. Afterward, the focus of the ceremony at Yad Vashem is the laying of wreaths at the foot of the six torches, by dignitaries and the representatives of survivor groups and institutions. Other sites of remembrance in Israel, such as the Ghetto Fighters' Kibbutz and Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, also host memorial ceremonies, as do schools, military bases, municipalities and places of work. >>> | Monday, April 12, 2010

'Cure' Is Found for Skin Cancer, Claim Scientists
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Scientists believe that they have found a cure for skin cancer.

A vaccine being tested in the UK has helped been shown to help some patients fully recover from melanoma, even in its advanced stages.

It attacks tumour cells, leaving healthy cells undamaged and carries agents that boost the body's response to skin cancer.

Dr Howard Kaufman, of Chicago's Rush University Medical Centre, said: "Our study shows we may have a cure for some advanced melanoma patients and a drug which has real benefits for others.

"This will save thousands of lives a year."

Over the past 25 years, rates of melanoma in Britain have risen faster than any other common cancer and 2,000 die from the disease every year. >>> | Sunday, April 11, 2010

PC Alert! Council Considers Banning Word 'Obesity'* to Avoid Offending Overweight Children
THE TELEGRAPH: A council is considering banning the word “obesity” from its health campaigns for fear of offending overweight children.

Liverpool City Council believes the expression could stigmatise youngsters and wants to replace it with the phrase “unhealthy weight”.

If the idea goes ahead, the words “obese” and "obesity" would be dropped from all schemes and strategies aimed at improving children’s diets and health.

However, the plans have been opposed by anti-obesity campaigners who are concerned the new term could lead to the issue being trivialised.

Tam Fry, chair of the obesity prevention charity the Child Growth Foundation, said: “If you’re obese you’re obese. >>> Murray Wardrop | Monday, April 12, 2010

*Okay, Mr Councillor! Just call them ugly fat instead! That should do the trick. Fat, after all, is fat! – © Mark

Hongrie : Large victoire de la droite aux législatives
Partisans de la Fidesz, le parti de Viktor Orban. Photo : Le Temps
LE TEMPS: Le pays bascule à droite et le grand gagnant du 1er tour des législatives hier est l’ancien premier ministre Viktor Orban, avec 53% des voix. En hausse avec plus de 16% des voix , l’extrême-droite entre au Parlement, talonnant désormais les socialistes

Le parti d’opposition de droite Fidesz a remporté une écrasante victoire dès le premier tour des élections législatives dimanche en Hongrie, tandis que l’extrême droite a réussi une percée et fait son entrée au Parlement.

Sur la base de 99% des bulletins de vote dépouillés par le Bureau national électoral (OVI), le Fidesz totalise 52,77% des suffrages et est déjà assuré de détenir au moins 206 sièges sur les 386 du parlement monocaméral. Le premier tour de scrutin a permis de répartir un total de 265 sièges entre les quatre partis représentés.

Il faudra cependant attendre le deuxième tour le 25 avril pour savoir si le Fidesz disposera de la majorité des deux tiers dans la nouvelle assemblée, ce qui lui permettrait de réviser la Constitution.

Son charismatique dirigeant, l’ex-Premier ministre Viktor Orban, âgé de 46 ans, a ainsi réussi à prendre sa revanche sur les socialistes et à mettre un terme à son purgatoire de huit années dans l’opposition.

«Les Hongrois ont choisi l’union, la sécurité et l’ordre, ils ont voté pour la Hongrie, pour l’avenir», a-t-il lancé sous les applaudissement de plusieurs centaines de ses fidèles dans le centre de Budapest dimanche soir. «Aujourd’hui les Hongrois ont vaincu le désespoir» a-t-il ajouté, tout en reconnaissant qu’il était conscient de «l’immense défi auquel (il allait) devoir faire face». >>> AFP | Lundi 12 Avril 2010

Canada: la loi anti-tabac bénéfique contre les maladies respiratoires
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: ÉTUDE | Une recherche publiée lundi aux Etats-Unis montre que les hospitalisations ont fortement baissé à Toronto suite à l'entrée en vigueur d’une loi anti-tabac en 2001 au Canada.

Les hospitalisations à Toronto pour des problèmes cardiovasculaires et respiratoires ont baissé respectivement de 39% et 33% depuis l’entrée en vigueur d’une loi anti-tabac en 2001 au Canada, selon une recherche parue lundi aux Etats-Unis.

Cette étude a été menée durant dix ans sur une base étendue de population dans ce centre urbain pour mesurer les effets de l’interdiction de fumer dans les restaurants.

"Des recherches mesurant précisément l’impact d’une loi anti-tabac sur les maladies cardiovasculaires et respiratoires pourraient avoir un énorme impact sur la santé publique étant donné que les maladies résultant du tabagisme pourraient faire un milliard de morts au XXIe siècle dans le monde", écrit le Dr. Alisa Naiman, de l’Université de Toronto et un des coauteurs de ces travaux qui paraissent dans le Journal of the Canadian Medical Association, et également publiés aux Etats-Unis. >>> AFP | Lundi 12 Avril 2010

Genfer Gericht gibt Ghadhafi Recht – kommt Bewegung in Fall Göldi?
TAGES ANZEIGER: Die Zeitung «Tribune de Genève» hätte die Polizeifotos des Sohns des libyschen Staatschefs nicht publizieren dürfen, befand der Richter. Das Urteil ist für Amnesty International «ein wichtiger Schritt».

Laut dem erstinstanzlichen Urteil sei die Persönlichkeit von Hannibal Ghadhafi durch die Publikation der Polizeifotos durch die «Tribune de Genève» verletzt worden, sagte Marc Hassberger, Anwalt der Genfer Tageszeitung. Der Anwalt hatte das Urteil am Montag erhalten. Laut Hassberger sei der Richter zum Schluss gekommen, die Zeitung habe mit der Publikation die verschiedenen Interessen falsch gewichtet.

Der Richter verurteilte die Zeitung deshalb dazu, das Urteil zu publizieren - sowohl in ihrer Printausgabe wie auch auf der Internetseite. Das Urteil publizieren muss auch der Kanton Genf. Drei Viertel der dadurch entstehenden Kosten gehen zulasten des Kantons, erklärte Hassberger. Der Rest müsse die Zeitung übernehmen. Kein Schmerzensgeld für Ghadhafi >>> vin/sda | Montag, 12. April 2010

Jobbik-Politikerin Morvai: "Ungarn muss notfalls aus der EU austreten"
WELT ONLINE: Die rechtsextreme Jobbik hat es erstmals ins ungarische Parlament geschafft. Auf WELT ONLINE erklärt deren Europa-Abgeordnete Krisztina Morvai, inwiefern sie die EU für undemokratisch hält, wie sie über Juden und Roma denkt und was ihre Partei mit der neu gewonnenen Macht in Ungarn anfangen will.

Krisztina Morvai sitzt im Europaparlament, ist aber EU-kritisch. Bild: Welt Online
Wenn die rechtsextreme Jobbik (Die Besseren) ihre gut besuchten Versammlungen abhält, dann weht ein Hauch von Zwischenkriegsmitteleuropa mit seinen Freikorps und Bürgerwehren durch den Saal. Als Partei gegründet wurde die Jobbik im Jahr 2003. Die Gründung der Ungarischen Garde und die Hassrhetorik gegen die angeblich „kriminellen Zigeuner“ beschleunigten den Aufstieg der Jobbik, deren bittere Ressentiments sich auch gegen Juden und Homosexuelle richten. Mit 16,7 Prozent zieht die Partei nun erstmals ins Parlament ein. >>> Von Thomas Roser | Montag, 12. April 2010

Espagne: le juge Garzon fait appel
LE FIGARO: Le juge espagnol Baltasar Garzon a fait appel aujourd'hui de la décision d'un juge du Tribunal suprême de le déférer en justice pour avoir voulu enquêter sur les disparus de la guerre civile espagnole et de la dictature franquiste en ignorant une loi d'amnistie générale, a annoncé son avocat. >>> AFP | Samedi 10 Avril 2010

ZEIT ONLINE: Spanien – Solidarität für Baltasar Garzón: Arrogant, stur, unbestechlich – der spanische "Superrichter" und Kämpfer für Menschenrechte hat viele Feinde in aller Welt. Sie wollen ihn jetzt zum Schweigen bringen. >>> Von Werner A. Perger | Montag, 12. April 2010

Religious Tolerance Has Put a Fatwa On Our Moral Nerve
THE SUNDAY TIMES: Religious freedom has turned out to be a mixed blessing. The idea was once an article of faith with me, irreligious though I am. But my faith is beginning to weaken. Religion has turned out to be different from what tolerant people of my monocultural childhood understood by it — a system of private belief and devotion that did not intrude into the public space except through charity and uncontroversial good works.

Now, by contrast, religion is constantly claiming attention in the public space and demanding special treatment. It is also abused in the name of divisive identity politics. All this makes even the most tolerant liberal think twice about freedom of religious expression.

Last week’s case of the self-styled “crucified” nurse is a perfect example of the problem. Shirley Chaplin, an experienced ward sister and devout Christian, discovered at an employment tribunal that — despite the support of seven bishops and a mention in the Easter sermon of the Archbishop of Canterbury — she had lost her battle to be allowed to wear a crucifix at work in the wards of the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital. Her crucifix is on a long chain and although she has worn it at work for many years, a recent hospital risk assessment found that it breached health and safety rules. This decision was upheld by the employment tribunal.

“I don’t use the word crucified lightly,” said Chaplin, “but in one sense I have been crucified by the system. Every Christian at work will now be afraid to mention their beliefs.” What on earth can she mean? The reverse is the truth. The hospital suggested to her as a compromise that she might indeed wear her crucifix openly at work, but pinned to her uniform rather than on a chain — rather as nurses wear watches pinned to their frontage for reasons of hygiene — thus publicly displaying her beliefs at all times.

One can, however, sympathise with something else she feels. Commenting that Muslim hospital staff have been allowed to continue wearing head coverings, she said that “Muslims do not seem to face the same rigorous application of NHS rules”. There’s certainly some truth in that.

At the end of March it emerged that female Muslim doctors and nurses are indeed to have special treatment on National Health Service wards. Non-Muslim staff in direct contact with patients must keep their arms bare to the elbow for important hygiene reasons — to make sure their sleeves do not become contaminated and so they can wash their hands thoroughly on ward rounds.

Their Muslim female counterparts, however, have been given a special dispensation by the Department of Health. Because some Muslims consider nudity of the female forearm to be immodest, Muslim doctors and nurses are to be issued with disposable sleeves, elasticated at wrist and elbow, to cover up the erogenous zone that lies between. This is absurd, unfair, wasteful and yet another example, as Chaplin and her episcopal supporters (and I) all feel, of the bias in favour of a vociferous religious minority. >>> Minette Marrin | Sunday, April 11, 2010

Euro Rallies On €30 Billion Greek Rescue
TIMES ONLINE: The euro surged to a one-month high and stock markets in Europe and Asia rallied today as traders welcomed a €30 billion (£26.5 billion) loans package for Greece, agreed by the currency's member countries to help the country tackle its debt crisis.

The euro surged to $1.3691 against the dollar, its highest level since mid-March, although concerns about the long-term nature of Greece's debt burden and worries about how the loans package would be implemented limited its gains.

The euro later dropped to $1.3574. Having fallen off sharply last week, it closed in New York on Friday at $1.3497.

"The euro is firmer as traders took heart from the Sunday announcement of the aid package for Greece,” said Daisuke Karakama, a currency analyst at Mizuho Corporate Bank. >>> Miles Costello, David Charter, Brussels | Monday, April 12, 2010

Nation Falls Silent as Grieving Poles Mark the Passing of Lech Kaczynski
TIMES ONLINE: Lech Kaczynski, the late President of Poland, returned home yesterday to a country struck dumb with grief and confusion.

The air crash that wiped out the head of state, the chief of the general staff, the chairman of the security services, the central bank governor and Solidarity heroes has left Poland reeling, unsteady and uncertain.

As the red and white Polish flag on the President’s casket flapped in the wind, the honour guard at Warsaw airport struck up the National Anthem. The president’s ashen-faced twin brother Jaroslaw, the Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, and parliamentarians fortunate enough not to have been on the doomed presidential plane, moved their lips to the words of the anthem: Poland has yet to perish/As long as we still live/That which foreign force has seized/We at sabre point shall retrieve.

Then, the casket made its way in a hearse through the streets of the silent capital. Tens of thousands lined the route, rushing in front of the police escort to place carnations on the road, snatching off their hats, dropping to their knees.

The only noise: the revving of hundreds of civilian motorbike riders, waving the national flag, who had decided spontaneously to follow the cortege, like seagulls in the wake of a ferryboat.

“It’s a group trauma,” said a catering entrepreneur, Kaja Burakiewicz, “we’re still struggling to understand.” >>> Roger Boyes, Warsaw | Monday, April 12, 2010

Robert Harris on The Ghost

Senegal: Renaissance or Hubris?

Virtual Obsession Leads to Baby’s Death

Les doutes de la France sur les visions de la Maison-Blanche
LE FIGARO: Si officiellement, la France applaudit aux initiatives de désarmement nucléaire de Barack Obama, elle s'estime par ailleurs «hors concours» en matière de désarmement stratégique.

Officiellement, Paris applaudit aux initiatives de désarmement nucléaire de Barack Obama. À l'Élysée, on considère que le président américain a «raison de vouloir avancer sur tous les fronts». «Dans cet immense chantier, nous sommes à côté de lui», souligne-t-on.

En apparence, ce «chantier» lancé à Prague il y a un an par le nouveau président américain, qui rêve d'un monde débarrassé des armes nucléaires, avance à pas de géant. Russes et Américains ont enfin trouvé un accord pour renouveler le traité de désarmement stratégique Start, enclenchant ainsi une normalisation de leurs relations; la nouvelle posture nucléaire américaine (NPR) a réduit le rôle de la dissuasion; les experts en communication de la Maison-Blanche ont réussi à faire du sommet de Washington une réussite avant même qu'il ne commence… Bref, tout va bien dans le meilleur des mondes.

La réalité est en fait un peu différente. Les visions, d'abord. Celle d'Obama, même si elle s'inscrit dans un projet à très long terme, suscite parfois la controverse, des deux côtés de l'Atlantique. Dans un contexte général de prolifération, quotidiennement alimenté par l'Iran et la Corée du Nord, beaucoup estiment qu'il serait dangereux que les grandes puissances nucléaires baissent trop vite la garde. La France, qui a déjà largement diminué la taille de sa dissuasion pour la maintenir au strict niveau de suffisance, et qui considère qu'elle est la garantie ultime de sa sécurité et de son indépendance, s'estime par ailleurs «hors concours» en matière de désarmement stratégique. >>> Par Isabelle Lasserre | Dimanche 11 Avril 2010

Police Investigate Homosexual Link in Terreblanche Killing
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: South African police are investigating whether there was a link between homosexual sex and the murder of far-Right leader Eugene Terreblanche at him farm.

Police had earlier said a pay dispute led to the killing of Eugene Terreblanche. Photograph: The Telegraph
Puna Moroko, the lawyer for Chris Mahlangu, 28, the elder of two people accused of the killing, said that "something shocking happened on that day".

A police spokesman confirmed that was among possibilities being investigated. Police had earlier said a pay dispute had led to the killing of Mr Terreblanche, on the political margins since his efforts to preserve apartheid in the early 1990s.

"We are not going to focus on one thing," said Musa Zondi of the Hawks investigative unit, adding that a sexual link was among the many accusations being made over the case.

"We will investigate all pertinent facts that have a bearing on the matter," he said.

General Jan Mabula, head of the Hawks in the North West Province, said the suspects' clothes were to be examined as part of checks into whether there was a sexual link. >>> Sebastien Berger In Johannesburg | Sunday, April 11, 2010

Christopher Cazenove: Septicaemia, a Deadly Bacteria in our Midst
THE TELEGRAPH: The sudden death of 'Dynasty' actor Christopher Cazenove has put septicaemia back in the news.

Christopher Cazenove with Dynasty co-stars. Photo: The Telegraph
The death of former Dynasty star Christopher Cazenove from septicaemia last week is a reminder that, despite advances in medical treatment and standards of hygiene, septicaemia or blood poisoning – a common cause of death in childbirth until the mid-1930s – remains a fast-acting and extremely dangerous condition.

The 66-year-old actor contracted the infection at the end of February after complaining of migraines during a business trip to California. On his return to the UK, he was treated at St Thomas's Hospital, in London, where he died on April 7.

Septicaemia occurs as a result of bacteraemia, the proliferation of bacteria in the bloodstream. In many cases, the source of the infection is never clear but it may be due to a wound, internal bleeding after an accident, or it can arise from an infection within the body, in the intestines or urinary tract, for example.

"Septicaemia occurs when toxins produced by bacteria in the bloodstream hyper-stimulate the patient's immune system," explains infections expert Prof Mark Enright, formerly of Imperial College London. "Your body is trying to fight the infection by pumping more blood around, so you get far too hot, which can lead to organ failure."

Any type of bacterium can cause septicaemia, but the most common types of infection are streptococcal, staphylococcal – which includes the hospital superbug MRSA* – and meningococcal. Sometimes there is an obvious site of infection such as a wound or laceration, but not always.

"In 40 per cent of septicaemia cases, there is no obvious site of entry," says George Griffin, Professor of Infectious Diseases at St George's Hospital, University of London. "The infection generally progresses quickly, and early symptoms are usually low blood pressure, altered consciousness and high fever, sometimes accompanied by chills." >>> Tammy Cohen | Monday, April 12, 2010

*THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Muslim staff escape NHS hygiene rule: Muslim doctors and nurses are to be allowed to opt out of strict hygiene rules introduced by the NHS to restrict the spread of hospital superbugs. >>> | Sunday, April 11, 2010

Bishop 'Blames Jews' for Criticism of Catholic Church Record on Abuse
THE GUARDIAN: A furious transatlantic row has erupted over quotes that were attributed to a retired Italian bishop, which suggested that Jews were behind the current criticism of the Catholic church's record on tackling clerical sex abuse.

A website quoted Giacomo Babini, the emeritus bishop of Grosseto, as saying he believed a "Zionist attack" was behind the criticism, considering how "powerful and refined" the criticism is.

The comments, which have been denied by the bishop, follow a series of statements from Catholic churchmen alleging the existence of plots to weaken the church and Pope Benedict XVI.

Allegedly speaking to the Catholic website Pontifex, Babini, 81, was quoted as saying: "They do not want the church, they are its natural enemies. Deep down, historically speaking, the Jews are God killers."

The interview was spotted on Friday by the American Jewish Committee, which said Babini was using "slanderous stereotypes, which sadly evoke the worst Christian and Nazi propaganda prior to world war two" [sic].

On its website, the American Jewish Group Committee quoted bishop Vincenzo Paglia, an official at the Italian Bishops' Conference, as saying Babini's remarks were "entirely contrary to the official line and mainstream thought of the Catholic church". >>> Tom Kington, Rome | Sunday, April 11, 2010

Hungary's Opposition Wins First Round of Voting
Hungarian women in traditional costume leave a voting booth in Mezokovesd during Sunday's elections. Photograph: The Wall Street Journal
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: BUDAPEST—Hungary's center-right opposition party Fidesz garnered 52.8% of the vote in Sunday's first round of parliamentary elections, while all other parties gained considerably less support, the country's national election office OVI said after processing 99% of the votes.

The ruling minority Socialist Party gained 19.3% of the votes, while the extremist right-wing party Jobbik received 16.7% and green party LMP got 7.4%. No other party crossed the 5% threshold of voter support to get into Parliament.

Both Jobbik and the LMP will make it to Parliament for the first time. Considerable support for Jobbik, known for its anti-Semitic and anti-Roma statements, could be a concern because it could hinder economic reforms.

The final results from the first round are still due. The second round of the elections is scheduled for April 25.

If Fidesz prevails, the new government's stance on fiscal policy and structural reforms will be crucial for investor sentiment toward Hungary, the first European Union country that secured International Monetary Fund support amid the global financial crisis. >>> Margit Feher | Monday, April 12, 2010

Hungary Far Right Needles Fidesz
THE NEW YORK TIMES: BUDAPEST - Hungary's Fidesz, which scored a sweeping victory at Sunday's election, said on Monday it would focus on creating jobs while the far-right Jobbik promised "spectacular" politics to clamp down on "Gypsy crime."

The leader of Jobbik, which bagged one in every six votes to win nearly as many seats as the punished ruling Socialists in Hungary's swing to the right, said it would not be invisible in the next parliament with its new-found clout.

The expectation on Fidesz to act quickly to put Hungary on the path to sustainable growth after near financial collapse will be huge, and investors are wary about whether Jobbik will try to hamper reforms. >>> Reuters | Monday, April 12, 2010

Across Europe, Support for Populist Parties Is On the Rise
DEUTSCHE WELLE: In recent months, extreme right-wing and populist parties have won significant gains in regional and parliamentary elections in Europe. For them, times of crisis are a boon.

As Europe grows together, expanding its visa-free zone toward Iceland and the Ukrainian border, many citizens are beginning to see themselves firstly as Europeans rather than as citizens of their individual countries.

But not everyone supports the breaking down of national barriers. In recent months, xenophobic and right-wing parties have made spectacular political gains across Europe.

In Hungary on Sunday, the far-right Jobbik party won well over 16 percent of votes in parliamentary elections, marking the first entry of an openly right-wing extremist party into parliament. With the country hard-hit by recession, Jobbik capitalized on rising nationalism and a resurgence of anti-Semitism and anti-Gypsy sentiment to win votes.

Jobbik's rise echoes that of France's right-wing Front National party, Italy's xenophobic Northern League and the Netherland's conservative Party for Freedom, which all saw dramatic gains in recent elections.

Although right-wing ideology takes different forms across Europe, it shares a common strategy: exploiting the fears of voters in times of crisis. Right-wing populists focus on their followers' discontent, says Wolfgang Kapust of German public broadcaster WDR.

"They offer easy answers to complicated problems: the economic situation, unemployment or social insecurity," said Kapust. "Above all, they want to get rid of, deport or 'send home' foreigners and 'the others.' " >>> | Monday, April 12, 2010

Markanter Rechtsrutsch: Weist Ungarns Wahlsieger die Rechtsextremen endlich in die Schranken?
NZZ ONLINE – Kommentar: Die ungarischen Parlamentswahlen haben die politische Landschaft des Landes umgepflügt. Die rechtskonservativen Jungdemokraten (Fidesz) unter Viktor Orban triumphieren. Die Sozialisten, die in den letzten acht Jahren regiert haben, erleiden eine Schlappe. Sie haben die Quittung für Misswirtschaft und Korruption erhalten. Ungarn, einst Spitzenreiter bei der Transformation in Ostmitteleuropa, ist zum Bittsteller geworden. Im Herbst 2008 stand das Land am Rande des Staatsbankrotts und konnte nur mit Hilfe des Internationalen Währungsfonds vor dem Absturz bewahrt werden. Hinzu kommt die Langzeitwirkung der sogenannten Lügenrede des damaligen Regierungschefs Gyurcsany. Dieser hatte nach dem Wahlsieg von 2006 hinter verschlossenen Türen erklärt, die Sozialisten hätten gelogen, um die Wahlen zu gewinnen. >>> C. Sr. | Montag, 12. April 2010

Mass Held in Honor of Polish President

Hungary Elections: First Step to Power for Far-Right Since Nazi Era
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: The far-Right is poised to take parliamentary seats for the first time since the Second World War, in Hungary's national elections.

Jobbik Rally Dunakeszi Hungary. Vona Gabor addresses suporters. Photograph: The Telegraph
Fidesz, Hungary's centre-right party, is expected to sweep out the unpopular Socialist government and Jobbik, a far-right party is predicted to take second place after Sunday's elections.

Hungary's largest Jewish organisation warned that the vote was "the first occasion that a movement pursuing openly anti-Semitic policies" has taken a step to power since the Nazi era.

Hungary's election gains for Jobbik follow a upsurge in support for the far-Right across Europe.

Last month, French regional elections, dominated by debates over immigration, saw electoral revival for the National Front. In June, Dutch elections could propel Geert Wilders, whose anti-Islamic, hard-right Freedom Party leads the polls, into power.

Amid rising unemployment, Hungary was the first European Union country to turn to the International Monetary Fund for an £18 billion bailout last year.

Jobbik has risen by using Hungary's deep economic crisis to revive traditional Hungarian scape-goating of Jewish and gypsy, or Roma, communities for joblessness and poverty.

It has close links with the Magyar Garda or Hungarian Guard, a banned paramilitary group with insignia modelled on the Arrow Cross of Hungary's wartime Nazis.

Gabor Vona, Jobbik's 31-year old leader, has vowed to be sworn in as an MP wearing the banned uniform. "I will keep my promise to go into parliament on the first day in a Garda vest," he said.

The Guards, founded by Mr Vona, have polarised Hungary by staging a series of marches against "gypsy crime" through small countryside towns and villages with large Roma communities. An unprecedented series of Roma killings in 2008 and 2009 claimed six lives in several villages. >>> Bruno Waterfield, in Brussels | Sunday, April 11, 2010

Machtwechsel: Ungarn gleitet nach rechts ab
20MINUTEN.ch: Bei der Parlamentswahl in Ungarn hat die konservative Fidesz-Partei des ehemaligen Ministerpräsidenten Viktor Orban einen klaren Sieg errungen. Damit steht das wirtschaftlich angeschlagene EU- Mitgliedsland vor einem Rechtsruck.

Die Rechte hat in Ungarn am Sonntag die Parlamentswahlen nach Umfragen klar für sich entschieden. Den grossen Meinungsforschungsinstituten des Landes zufolge stimmten 54 bis 57 Prozent der Wähler für den rechts-konservativen Bund Junger Demokraten (FIDESZ). Damit kommt es wohl zum Regierungswechsel.

Auch die rechtsextreme Jobbik (Die Besseren) dürfte mit 15 bis 17 Prozent erstmals ins Parlament einziehen. Dagegen kam die regierende Ungarische Sozialistische Partei (MSZP) den Umfragen zufolge nur auf 19 bis 20 Prozent der Stimmen.

Die links-ökologische Partei «Politik kann anders sein» (LMP) dürfte mit 5,5 bis 6 Prozent erstmals den Sprung in die Volksvertretung geschafft haben.

Offizielle Ergebnisse wurden nicht mitgeteilt, da einige Wahllokale länger geöffnet bleiben mussten. Die FIDESZ-Partei erklärte, die Wahlleitung überschreite ihre Kompetenzen und müsse zurücktreten.

In mehreren Bezirken hatten sich lange Schlangen vor den Wahllokalen gebildet. Deshalb war dort die Stimmabgabe auch noch nach der offiziellen Schliessung um 19.00 Uhr möglich. Wie die Landeswahlkommission (OVB) in Budapest mitteilte, war jedoch nicht erhöhtes Wähleraufkommen Grund für die Warteschlangen, vielmehr hätten administrative Unzulänglichkeiten dazu geführt. Wohl absolute Mehrheit für FIDESZ >>> sda | Sonntag, 11. April 2010

La Hongrie s'apprête à basculer à droite
LE MONDE: La Hongrie, qui exercera au premier semestre 2011 la présidence de l'Union européenne, se prépare à un bouleversement de son paysage politique lors des élections législatives des 11 et 25 avril. Tous les instituts de sondage prédisent une majorité absolue, peut-être même des deux tiers, à la principale force de l'opposition de droite, le Fidesz, de l'ancien premier ministre Viktor Orban.

L'autre enjeu de ce scrutin législatif, le sixième depuis la fin du communisme il y a vingt ans, sera de confirmer ou non la poussée du parti d'extrême droite Jobbik, qui a capté d'emblée près de 15 % des voix aux élections européennes en 2009, déjouant alors tous les pronostics. Sur sa lancée, le parti de Gabor Vona et de Krisztina Morvai, ses deux figures de proue, s'est donné pour objectif de décrocher la deuxième place au Parlement, devant MSZP, le Parti socialiste hongrois. Au pouvoir depuis 2002, ce dernier est usé par des affaires de corruption qui ont écœuré l'opinion publiqu, et par la politique de rigueur budgétaire qu'ils ont dû se résoudre à mener, avec le secours du Fonds monétaire international, pour sauver le pays de la banqueroute. Mais il semble que le Jobbik (son nom joue à la fois sur l'idée de "droite" et de "meilleur") a visé trop haut, et devra se contenter de la troisième place. >>> Joëlle Stolz | Dimanche 11 Avril 2010

WIKI: Gábor Vona >>>

Far-right Party Jobbik On Course for Breakthrough in Hungarian Elections
The Vencel family display their support of the Hungarian Hussar Unit at the poll. Photograph: Times Online
TIMES ONLINE: A far-right party whose candidates have voiced anti-Semitic and anti-Gypsy rhetoric was on course for a breakthrough in Hungarian elections amid predictions that it could even beat the governing socialists into third place.

Jobbik, which maintains a uniformed wing that marches in military formation, was set last night to win its first parliamentary seats against the backdrop of anti-Government resentment and an economic downturn.

Opinion polls yesterday predicted a landslide victory for the opposition centre-right Fidesz party, which last ruled between 1998 and 2002.

It has promised to create a million jobs over the next decade, stamp out corruption and revamp the Byzantine tax system in a country where unemployment is 11 per cent. Harsh austerity measures have also been implemented under the terms of an IMF loan of €20 billion (£17.5 billion) in 2008.

However, there are fears that a strong showing by Jobbik, one of a number of far-right groups making gains in Europe, could weaken investor confidence and deepen the country’s crisis, which may account for a stream of recent stories attacking the party.

The Jobbik spokesman Andras Kiraly resigned after pictures of him at the Toronto Gay Pride parade appeared on the internet, and a female member of the Magyar Garda, the party’s uniformed organisation, was revealed to have starred in a lesbian pornographic film. >>> Adam LeBor, Budapest | Monday, April 12, 2010

The power of Oprah
THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY: Virtually no television network has shown interest in Kitty Kelley's new biography of the chat-show host

She has built her fame and considerable fortune by baring her soul to a nation of telly addicts on an almost daily basis. But despite her carefully cultivated "woman of the people" image, Oprah Winfrey takes an exceedingly dim view of any outsiders impertinent enough to wonder what really makes her tick.

That, at least, is the verdict of the celebrity biographer Kitty Kelley, one of the book industry's foremost scandalmongers, who claims the magisterial chat-show host's personal privacy is protected by a brand of media censorship so far reaching that it might have turned Senator McCarthy green with envy.

Ms Kelley, who has previously taken a typewriter-shaped hatchet to the lives of such luminaries as Nancy Reagan, Frank Sinatra, and the British Royal Family, will tomorrow publish an unauthorised biography of Winfrey, which is expected to delve into her abusive childhood and somewhat mysterious sex life.

The eagerly awaited tome will have a print run of 500,000, and sufficient buzz already to be in the top 25 of Amazon's sales charts. Yet in contrast to almost every other biography of Ms Kelley's career (many of which have been number one bestsellers) the launch of Oprah has attracted virtually no interest from major TV channels.

Every US network – with the exception of NBC, which will have her on Monday's Today show – is reported to have decided, after some consideration, not to feature the author in its programmes. The management of ABC allegedly slapped a formal ban on her appearing on its airwaves.

In an interview this week, Kelley blamed the blackballing on a collective paranoia across the industry about upsetting Winfrey, who remains one of the most powerful individuals in broadcasting and exerts a mysterious hold over prominent talk show hosts who have refused to have anything to do with the new book.

"We have already been told by Barbara Walters' producer 'no, you cannot be on The View. I cannot disrupt my relationship with Oprah'," Kelley revealed to The New York Times last week. "Joy Behar, the same thing. Charlie Rose; Larry King said 'I will not do it, it might upset Oprah'. Even David Letterman." >>> Guy Adams | Sunday, April 11, 2010

How Americans Got Sold On Smoking Cigarettes

This Stupid, Naïve, (Muslim?) President! Obama Bows to the King of Saudi Arabia. His Lord and Master? But Not to Queen Elizabeth II

This Stupid, Naïve (Muslim?) President! Lieberman: Omitting 'Islamic' Terrorism From Security Document Dishonest, 'Offensive'
FOX NEWS: Sen. Joe Lieberman slammed the Obama administration Sunday for stripping terms like "Islamic extremism" from a key national security document, calling the move dishonest, wrong-headed and disrespectful to the majority of Muslims who are not terrorists.

Sen. Joe Lieberman slammed the Obama administration Sunday for stripping terms like "Islamic extremism" from a key national security document, calling the move dishonest, wrong-headed and disrespectful to the majority of Muslims who are not terrorists.

The Connecticut independent revealed that he wrote a letter Friday to top counterterrorism adviser John Brennan urging the administration to "identify accurately the ideological source" of the threat against the United States. He wrote that failing to identify "violent Islamist extremism" as the enemy is "offensive."

The letter was written following reports that the administration was removing religious references from the U.S. National Security Strategy -- the document that had described the "ideological conflict" of the early 21st century as "the struggle against militant Islamic radicalism."

Lieberman told "Fox News Sunday" this isn't the first time the Obama administration has tried to tiptoe around referring to Islam in its security documents and that it's time to "blow the whistle" on the trend. >>> FOXNews.com | Sunday, April 11, 2010

Dark Age Alert!* Slop Buckets Should Be Installed in Offices
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Office workers should have access to a slop bucket near their desks to dispose of apple cores, tea bags and under food waste, according to Government plans to improve recycling by business.

Already households are being forced to install “slop buckets” in kitchens so that unwanted food can be collected separately.

In a report drawn up to boost recycling rates by business, companies are also encouraged to also start collecting food waste separately.

Experts said this could mean introducing slop buckets into offices and some companies are already removing traditional bins from beside desks so that workers are forced to put paper, empty drinks cans or food waste in the correct recycling bin. >>> Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent | Sunday, April 11, 2010

*Wait for the hot summer weather! Then we’ll see the infestations of flies! And the rat population is set to soar, of course! Naturally, all will spread diseases. How long will it be, I wonder, before we start seeing people die of the plague? – © Mark

Hungarian Jews Urged to Vote Against Extremists
JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY (JTA): BUDAPEST, Hungary -- On the eve of parliamentary elections in Hungary, the largest Hungarian Jewish umbrella organization called upon Jews to vote against anti-Semitic candidates.

“This is the first occasion that a movement pursuing openly anti-Semitic policies and challenging the basic values of Hungarian statehood” is on the verge of entering the Hungarian Parliament, the Association of Hungarian Jewish Religious Communities said in a reference to Jobbik, the Hungarian far-right party. >>> | Sunday, April 11, 2010

Saudi Arabia: Anti-Semitic Hatred on Iqra TV

Celine Dion & Barbara Streisand - Tell Him

Cast Lead Aftermath: Anti-Semitism On the Rise Worldwide
YNET NEWS: On eve of Holocaust Day, Institute for Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism report shows that in wake of Operation Cast Lead, 2009 was worst since monitoring of anti-Semitic acts began 20 years ago. Number of violent incidents totaled 1,129 last year compared to 559 in 2008

The year of 2009 saw an increase of more than 100% in the number of violent acts of anti-Semitic nature against Jews worldwide, according to a report released Sunday by the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism at Tel Aviv University.

The Institute recorded 1,129 violent incidents in 2009, compared to 559 in 2008 – the highest number of incidents in the past 20 years.

The Institute's head, Prof. Dina Porat, noted in a press briefing that number of incidents, both violent and verbal, might actually be far higher than the figures presented in the report, as they do not include hundreds of instances of targeting of Jewish individuals or property (or public property), where there was no clear evidence of anti-Semitic motive. In addition, she said, Jews sometimes prefer not to file complaints, fearing reprisal or doubting the outcome[.] >>> Aviel Magnezi | Sunday, April 11, 2010

YNET NEWS: Berlin Jews alarmed by spate of anti-Semitic attacks: Jewish Community in Berlin warns of 'alarming' rise in anti-Semitic violence by Arab, Turkish immigrants following reports of two attacks against Jews over the weekend >>> Reuters | Monday, March 29, 2010

YNET NEWS: Muslim-Jewish tensions roil Swedish city: Malmo's Jewish community worried about rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes, which has prompted several families to leave >>> Associated Press | Sunday, March 28, 2010

Thank You, Mr. President
YNET NEWS: Dan Calic says Obama doing great job convincing liberal Jews he's bad for Israel

As a G-d fearing conservative Jew I would like to thank President Obama. You might ask yourself why would someone like me wish to thank Mr. Obama.

When he became president I expressed concern to many in the Jewish community including family members that he would not act in Israel’s best interest. Since the majority of them can be described as "liberal," my concerns were not well received. “Let’s see what happens,” one said. “Give him a chance,” said another.

Since Obama has taken office he’s been “given a chance,” and we’ve “seen what’s happened.” His track record includes the following:

* Going to Cairo in the heart of the Arab world and making a personal appeal to reach out to the Muslims. Something no other president has done.

* Even though Iran has made it clear it intends to posses nuclear weapons and has publicly stated it’s desire to “wipe Israel off the map,” Obama has told Israel not to strike Iran

* He reportedly interrupted a shipment of bunker busting bombs destined for Israel

* He denies Israel’s right to maintain an undivided Jerusalem as its capital and wants Israel to give up all post ’49 land for "peace." Such a move on Israel’s part would bring terrorists committed to its destruction literally within a few meters of hundreds of thousands of Israeli civilians, creating indefensible borders

* He supports a contiguous land link between Judea/Samaria and Gaza, splitting Israel in two.

* Every Arab group, Hezbollah, Hamas, PLO and Fatah have charters which call for the destruction of Israel, yet he says nothing to them about amending their charters.

* Mahmoud Abbas routinely attends events where the Palestinian flag is shown covering not just the biblical heartland of Israel, but the entire country. Obama is silent.

* Abbas has named public places after terrorists who collectively murdered over 45 Israeli civilians. Obama is silent.

* Should the UN vote to criticize Israel for constructing homes in east Jerusalem Obama reportedly threatened to abandon the long-standing US policy of vetoing an anti-Israel resolution.

* He treats Israel’s prime minister worse than our enemies.

>>> Dan Calic | Sunday, April 11, 2010

Pope Condolences to Poland: Pope Benedict Expresses Sympathy to the Polish People After the Plane Crash That Claimed 96 Lives

Muslim Woman Dies as Hijab Is Caught in Go-kart Axle
THE TELEGRAPH: An Australian woman has died after the Islamic head dress that she was wearing was caught in the axle of a go-kart during a family outing to a racing track.

The woman, 26, suffered severe neck injuries and went into cardiac arrest after her hijab, which covers the head and neck, became stuck in the kart's machinery while she was driving at high speed.

Paramedics managed to revive the woman after material from the hijab tightened around her throat and she was airlifted to hospital, where she later died.

Local media reports said that her husband and children were at the track at the time.

Police have opened an investigation into the incident, which took place at the Port Stephens Go-Kart track on the New South Wales midcoast, and have seized the go-kart for forensic examination.

Detective Inspector Peter Fox of Port Stephens local area command told Fairfax news websites that the longer part of the scarf was wedged down near one of the go-kart's wheel axles.

"[It appears] the scarf was pulled across her throat ... from one side of the body to the other side," he said.

Police said the woman and her family had been holidaying in Port Stephens, a popular coastal town, prior to the accident.

Signs at the track warn visitors about inappropriate footwear and advises drivers that they use the track at their own risk. However, there are no regulations about scarves or head dresses. >>> Bonnie Malkin in Sydney | Friday, April 09, 2010

South Africa: A Separate Homeland for Afrikaners?
THE TELEGRAPH: The death of Eugene Terreblanche has revived Afrikaner demands for their own homeland - and risks civil war. Jane Flanagan reports from Ventersdorp in South Africa

Supporters of slain white supremacist leader Eugene Terreblanche, salute his coffin as it is driven from the church in Ventersdorp. Photo: The Telegraph
As I drink tea in the sitting-room of Daniel and Margrieta Dreyers, it is easy to forget that apartheid ever ended. The couple, wearing the combat fatigues of the right-wing Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) movement and surrounded by nick-nacks from a lifetime's devotion to preserving the rituals and traditions of the Boers, South Africa's original white settlers, are mourning the loss of their leader.

Mr and Mrs Dreyers have just returned from the funeral of Eugene Terreblanche and are filled with quiet anger over the loss of "Oom Gene" (Uncle Gene), under whose command of the AWB they had served for almost three decades. Looking through their "reminders of the golden years for the Afrikaners" offers them some comfort.

The porcelain ox wagon and drawings of the stout granite Voortrekker monument, arranged carefully around the room, bear testament to the Great Trek into the unforgiving South African hinterland 175 years ago, 
which earned the Afrikaners independence from the British and a reputation for being among the toughest and most resourceful pioneers in history.

"These treasures remind me why Afrikaners belong here, why we could never leave, and why we and South Africa are one and the same," Mrs Dreyers, a 64-year-old grandmother of five, explains quietly.

Her husband adds: "We fight to keep our land because our people suffered so greatly to win it. We fought wars and lost fine men for it, we worked this soil until our hands bled. We made this country what it is. Nothing bad can be done to us that does not serve to make us stronger."

Like an increasing number of Afrikaans-speaking white South Africans, Mrs and Mrs Dreyers believe the lawlessness in rural areas, which claims the lives of two or three white farmers or family members every week, can only end with another separation of whites and blacks. "A homeland for Afrikaners is what we want, and it is what God wants for us," Mr Dreyers, 70, says, before expanding into the sort of rhetoric that made his leader reviled by both the black population and liberal whites. >>> Jane Flanagan in Ventersdorp, South Africa | Saturday, April 10, 2010

THE OBSERVER: After Eugene Terre'Blanche's murder, the boers prepare for war once more: Many Afrikaners believe the killing of Eugene Terre'Blanche was part of a plot to unleash a deadly onslaught against white farmers >>> Alex Duval Smith | Sunday, April 11, 2010

Obituary: Lech Kaczynski
THE TELEGRAPH: Lech Kaczynski, who was killed in an air crash on April 10 aged 60, had been president of Poland since 2005.

Photograph: The Telegraph
An unashamed nationalist who sought to give Poland a more powerful voice in international affairs, his populist, Right-wing beliefs commended him to many Poles, particularly the large Roman Catholic population.

It was an enthusiasm not universally shared on the world stage. Kaczynski and his twin brother Jaroslaw – who served for a time as his prime minister – urged President George W Bush to install anti-missile missiles in Poland and pursued what many saw as a vendetta against former communists.

They campaigned vociferously against homosexuality, prostitution and abortion, and capitalised on the Polish mistrust of the Russians and the Germans (who in turn referred to the Kaczynski twins as "the Polish potatoes"). According to one analyst: "[The Kaczynskis] see the Germans as untrustworthy pigs and the Russians as worse."

Lech Aleksander Kaczynski was born on June 18 1949, 45 minutes after his twin. Their father was an engineer by profession, their mother a philologist at the Polish Academy of Sciences. Both their parents had taken part in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, which left more than 150,000 Poles dead and their nation too weak to resist the subsequent predations of the Soviet Union. It was a disaster that proved formative for Lech. "At home I learned a conviction that Poland was under oppression, that the communist system had been forced upon us," he later declared.

The twins first became famous in Poland when they were 12, after being chosen to star in a fantasy film called Two Boys Who Stole The Moon (1962). Both then studied Law at Warsaw University, and after graduating Lech took up a teaching post at the University of Gdansk, where he completed a PhD.

By the end of the 1970s both twins were involved in trade union politics. Lech Walesa had been one of Lech Kaczynski's students, and his former teacher now began acting as his lawyer as the shipyard electrician took on the might of the communist state. >>> | Saturday, April 10, 2010

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Queen's sorrow at Polish air crash that killed president Lech Kaczynski: The Queen paid tribute last night to Poland’s president Lech Kaczynski, who died along with his wife Maria and 95 others when his plane crashed as it attempted to land at a Russian airport. >>> Nick Meo and Matthew Day | Sunday, April 11, 2010

THE TELEGRAPH: Poland declares week of mourning after president among 96 dead in plane crash: Poland has declared a week of national mourning as the nation struggles to come to terms with the catastrophic plane crash that claimed the lives of the Polish president, his wife and dozens of the country's political and military elite. >>> Matthew Day in Warsaw | Saturday, April 10, 2010

THE ADVOCATE: Poland Mourns Death of Antigay President >>> Advocate.com Editors | Saturday, April 10, 2010

PINK NEWS: Gay rights advocating former Polish Deputy PM among dead in plane crash: The plane crash that killed the homophobic Polish President Lech Kaczynski has also claimed the life of Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka, one of the most outspoken advocates for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) rights in Poland. >>> Staff Write, Pink News | Saturday, April 10, 2010

George Osborne Tells Peter Tatchell Conservatives Will Consider Full Gay Marriages
PINK NEWS: Shadow chancellor and Conservative general election campaign manager George Osborne met gay rights campaigner and Green party activist Peter Tatchell earlier today and promised to 'consider' gay marriages ahead of Mr Tatchell's event to persuade Conservative leader David Cameron to 'come out' more on gay rights. >>> Staff Writer, Pink News | Sunday, April 11, 2010

Somalia Islamists Al-Shabab Ban BBC Transmissions
BBC: The Somali Islamist movement al-Shabab has banned the BBC and closed down transmitters broadcasting the Somali language service inside the country.

Al-Shabab accused the BBC of fighting against Islam and supporting the transitional federal government, which the rebels are fighting to overthrow.

The group said the BBC had been broadcasting the agenda of crusaders and colonialists against Muslims.

The BBC said it was strictly impartial and spoke to all sides in the conflict.

The BBC has been broadcasting its services in Somali, Arabic and English across the country on a series of FM frequencies for at least a decade, and surveys suggest it is one of the most widely listened-to news services in Somalia. >>> By Peter Greste
East Africa correspondent, BBC News | Friday, April 09, 2010

Stupidity at the White House! Obama Moves to De-link Terrorism from Islam
DAWN: WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama has ordered a revision of America’s National Security Strategy with the aim to remove terms that link Islam to terrorism, administration officials said.

The officials said the change would remove terms like “Islamic radicalism” from the National Security Strategy, a document that was created by the previous administration to outline the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war.

The US National Security Strategy outlines major national security concerns and the methods to deal with them. Such documents are prepared periodically by the executive branch of the government for Congress. US media outlets often refer to this document for borrowing terms to use in a report.

The Bush-era document describes the war against terrorists as “the struggle against militant Islamic radicalism … the great ideological conflict of the early years of the 21st century.” The Council on American-Islamic Relations on Thursday welcomed the announcement, saying it was a step in the right direction.

“We welcome this change in language as another step toward respectful and effective outreach to Muslims at home and abroad,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad.

He recommended that media professionals and commentators adopt similarly neutral and objective language and avoid “loaded” terminology. >>> Anwar Iqbal | Friday, April 09, 2010

The Hit Parade

Sudan's Multi-Party Election

Adopted Boy Sent Back